Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Pointers

How can you hope to attain something that you already are?


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One of the reasons that you are struggling with nonduality is that you are thinking of it in terms of an occurrence or an event. Or even as a feeling or an experience. But it is completely
beyond the pinnacle emotions of joy and happiness. It's even beyond love. So any attempts to utilize or "align with" specific sentiments or conditions will be of no help to you.


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Deep sleep is far superior to any blissful or ecstatic experience. For deep sleep is deep rest. And it is completely natural. During deep sleep, awareness is still present. But there is nothing to witness: No thoughts, no dreams, and no bodily perceptions or sensations. We literally die a sweet death every night. We even crave it, because it is the
only thing that gives us such peace and rest. But you can know that which never sleeps or dies at this very moment. Discover it for yourself.


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You are both employing a false perspective and giving an undue weight to life when you say that everything is perfect or that everything is terrible. Events are simply occurring as they are occurring.


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When you start your spiritual exploration with yourself (as opposed to suspect notions and hear-say), you end with yourself. For there is
literally nothing in between: No path, no person, no process, and no journey. It's just a deep and instantaneous perceiving of your natural and nonconceptual essence. This recognition is, at once, no-frills, hushed, and extraordinary. It can only be pointed to or hinted at, and never fully described.


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You are a living embodiment of Truth itself. You are simply overlooking your natural and ever-present state. But that's not your fault, entirely. You have been taught by family, mentors, teachers, and spiritual counselors to see yourself not only as an individual, but as individual with an X-kind of car, y-kind of job, and z-kind of subur-ban life, all of which go to only increase your sense of indivi-dualism. But the good news is that you are awareness proper. All you need to do is see this for yourself.


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There is no Original Sin -- just Self-forgetfulness.


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In your daily activities, take a moment to note this sheer-like
presence that is already in the forefront of your life. Allow this moment to come of its own. And it surely will, given that your natural state is nothing
but that unbounded peace and capacious-ness. Heretofore, it has simply been passed over by cursory thoughts and shifting emotions, which you imagined were immediate and vital, but were not.



*****


Clarity and contentment
are nonduality. This great teaching is nothing less than a felt-reality from which you are never absent. It only appears that it is something for which you have to search or attain. But nothing could be further from the Truth -- which, ironically, is the very same thing that could be said about yourself at this very moment.


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When you are told to look for your mind, what is the first thing you see? Stillness. Spaciousness. Nothingness. A wayward thought or idea comes up a few seconds later, and
that precisely is the mind (or at least an aspect of it; for the mind is simply a group of functions which include memory and reasoning). Now, go back to the stillness. Allow it to present itself, as it were. This does not actually happen. For awareness does not move, and it is already fully in place. But its sudden recognition can sometimes feel like a kind of "shift" into something. But really, you attain noth-ing at all. This is just an instant understanding or apperceiving (i.e., a seeing with full awareness) of that which has always been in noble evidence.

3 comments:

Colleen Loehr said...

I am glad to find your blog (through a link from John Wheeler's website) and many of these pointers hit a chord. I found it helpful to read that "There is no Original Sin- just Self-forgetfulness." Guilt is a heavy weight that gives the erroneous notion of a separate self seeming solidity. The shift from "sin" to Self-forgetfulness pulls the rug out from ego-enhancing guilt. Thanks for your pointers!

albert said...

Love your blog, Rodney! Found it via John W. and Charlie H.'s web sites. I just started reading it from start to finish (up to March 2009 so far). Plus this latest post. The comment on deep sleep caught my eye. Can you talk more about deep sleep? Ramana Maharshi once said "that which is not present in deep sleep is not real," which still puzzles me somewhat. And you say, "During deep sleep, awareness is still present." I guess I still have this question: How do we really know that? Not speculatively or logically, but how do we know that directly? Whatever is there in deep sleep is here now - I suppose if I really saw what is being pointed to here now, such questions might resolve themselves. I feel I DO see what is being pointed to here now, though. Still tripped up by time maybe - then vs now? Anyway, thank you for everything in this blog. I'm glad I found it.

Orion said...

Thank you for your words and presence.